 Alpheus Remember Collins COLLINSVILLE TIMES 18 February 1932 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES COLLINS FamilyA
wave of covered wagons began their westward flow from the northern and
eastern states into the southwest soon after the close of the Civil
War. One of those wagons carried the household belongings of a Northern
widow - widow of a missionary, who with her two small sons were on
their way to a new home, new surroundings, new hardships, and new
difficulties to a tract of land located in the northern part of the
State of Texas - Grayson County - to what was to be Collinsville.
This widow was Mrs. Lodoweska Collins from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her husband, Rev. Walter D. Collins, missionary of the Methodist church, had been superintendent of education for the Cherokee and Choctaw Indians. It was while aiding her husband in his work in the Indian Territory that Mrs. Collins became vastly interested in the promotion of education. It was here that her two sons, Alpheus R. and Charles Collins were born. Mr. & Mrs. Collins had planned to make the long journey to their new home in the Southwest together but Mr. Collin's health failed and he had to give up his work with the Indians and return to Ann Arbor, where he died. Mrs. Collins remained in Ann Arbor, Michigan, teaching so that her sons might have better educational advantages until after the Civil War.  On
her arrival in Grayson County, she immediately took up her philanthropy
work. Here she opened and taught, at her own expense, the first free
school in the state of Texas.
Mrs. Collins sons grew to manhood, entered various business enterprises and were successful. Alpheus R. Collins drew off and gave the community the town site that is Collinsville today. Before this time the town had been callled 'Toadsuck'. Charles Collins was instrumental in locating the first post office in Collinsville. In 1877, Mrs. Collins accompanied her son, Charles, to California where he died. She returned and for a time made her home with Mr. and Mrs. John Dorchester at Sherman before going to live with her other son, Alpheus, who had moved to Denison and married Miss Hattie Daugherty of that city. The Daugherty family moved from Michigan where the two young people had met at Albion College where they both were students at that institution. Mrs. Collins' later years were spent in church and social welfare work in Denison. She died at the home of her son in 1960. Funeral services were held at the Methodist Episcopal Church, North; interment was in the Fairview cemetery, Denison, Texas. 
Alpehus Remember Collins became one of the most prominet and successful
men of Denison. He was interested in real estate, banking, and
thoroughbred stock-raising.
 A. R. Collins' business card He owned the A. R. Collins' Block at 511-513 West Main Street. Biography Index Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |